The Whale Rider Essay -- Witi Ihimaera essays research papers

This book really grabbed me right from the beginning of the story. The story begins with the birth of fraternal twins, with the grandfather patiently awaiting the birth of the son. Right away I felt sadness when the mother and one of the twins die. The boy dies and the girl survives. The grandpa seems to not care about the girl who survived . He was longing for his grandson because he is from the Maori tribe and the tribe is waiting for the sign of a new chief to be born . The chief would lead the village and its community to greatness. Many elders have been born but none with the strength to be the next chief. The little girl was named Pai. The grandma of Pai took her home to raise her along with the grandfather. The grandfather showed right away that women or girls where less than a man. He longed for a new chief . This was grandpas goal in life right now. He could see that their tribe was going down hill .He had hoped one of his son’s would become the chief but neither one did. So grandpa was set on his grandson becoming the next chief  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  .It was no secret that he blamed Pia for the death of his grandson. He felt by her birth she gave a curse to the tribe. He couldn’t see any truth or purpose in her having life over the grandson. He showed resentment toward her. As time went on , Pia seemed to be this stubborn, curious, and smart little tomboy . The grandfather didn’t like that pia was a tomboy . He wanted her to stay away from a...

Group Practice Manager on Administrative Applications

Group Practice Manager on Administrative Applications Group Practice Manager on Administrative Applications An Air Force (AF) military treatment facility (MTF) will normally have two or more group practice managers (GPM). The facility where this interview takes place has three; they are co-located at LakenheathHospital with duties equally divided between in and outpatient care areas. The duties of a GPM consist of assessing clinical business practices, forecasting demands on medical services, and determine how well the MTF is meeting the business plan. They are responsible for the evaluation of each provider regarding relative value unit (RVU) and relative weighted unit (RWU). Additionally, they are evolved in budgeting, marketing, strategic planning and lead facility initiatives addressing patient satisfaction of in and outpatient medical services (AFMS Kx, n. d. ). The GPMs interact with numerous administrative applications to achievesuccess at their job. This paper will discuss three key applications; Management Analysis and Reporting Tool (M2), United States Armed Forces Europe (USAFE) Decision Support System (DSS) and Air Force Surgeon General’s Executive Global Look (SG EGL) utilized by the GPM in assess data. M2 is a Business Objects query tool GPMs use to aid decision makers in overseeing military health system(MHS) operations. The benefits of M2, provides a detailed summary of population, clinical and financial data from all MHSworldwide. Data includes, purchased care, eligibility and enrollment data (Executive Information Decision Support, n. . ). GPMs use M2 to evaluate encounters, business practices, perform trend analyses, conduct patient, and provider profiling studies. This application also identifies areas of healthcare services paid to the private sector that are available at the MTF and transfers those services back to MTF. Disadvantages of this system identified by the GPM include, complicated excel spreadsheet s requiring extensive data cleanup and performing multiple pivots to present reportable data. Data lag time is forty to sixty days, so today the GPM can only assess data as recent as the end of February. This system is preferred to the Composite Health Care System (CHCS I), a Virtual Memory System (VMS) where ad-hoc reports are built, requiring clean up, then pasted in to Excel for more data clean-up and pivoting (Beyster & Economy, 2007). Another administrative application favored by GPMs is the Air Force Surgeon General’s Executive Global Look (SG EGL). SG EGL assesses MTF effectiveness of meeting measures in customer satisfaction, provider availability, appointment booking, business plan and the command’s overall performance. One innovation all three GPMs agree upon is SG EGL, this administrative application provides â€Å"Push Report,† which pre-builds graphics of the aforementioned data that they do not have to pivot down. The SG EGL website allows requested reports to be sent directly to e-mail inbox monthly (Air Force Surgeon General’s Executive Global Look, n. d. ). Reports received have the same information contained on the website, so the user receives information in a dashboard format that is easily copied into PowerPoint for presentation tothe hospital leadership. One limitations of SG EGL noted by the GPM is the same data lag time as M2. Another problem with this application is the website frequently is inoperative and if updates are implemented you may not be able to see data until the Pentagon figures out the issue. One of the strengths of the website regardless up or down the â€Å"Push Reports† are always sent and contain viable data. Another tool for analyzing data used by the GPM is DSS. DSS is located in Ramstein, Germany and supports USAFESG on data regarding medical services provided throughout USAFE. DSS is a team of informatics specialists that generate custom reports, create and manage web-based applications (USAFE DSS, n. d. ). GPMs find DSS a favorite place to request custom built reports not covered in other applications such as M2 or SG EGL. Additionally, the informatics experts have the ability to mined data and perform clean-up, the GPM would normally have to accomplish. The report is still received in excel format,but data is specific to the request. The negatives of DSS, if a requested report needs additional data fields added, the report has to be rebuilt to include the new fields. Furthermore, extensive directions must be given to guide the informatics section on building the report. Once the report is built to specifications the potential for assessment of data is tremendous. The administrative application discussed in this paper address just a few currently used by GPMs. There are additional unique databases at major commands (MAJCOM), developed to assess unique data requiring evaluation by the command. The development of unique databases occurs due tothe demand for quick acquisition of data â€Å"in real time. Unfortunately, development at the DoD level takes years for implementation and the user want current data, not data forty to sixty days out of date. GPMs at this facility greatly desire one administrative application to obtain tables, graphs and reports, but such an application is years in the making. References Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) Knowledge Exchange (Kx). (n. d). Group practice manager’s position description. Retrieved from https ://kx. afms. mil/kxweb/home. doAFAF (Air Force Surgeon General’s Executive Global Look n. d. SG EGL)Air Force Surgeon General’s Executive Global Look. (n. d. . SG EGL. Retrieved from https://egl. afms. mil/ (Beyster R J Economy P 2007 SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Comapny)Beyster, R. J. , & Economy, P. (2007). The SAIC solution: How we built an $8 billion employee-owned technology company. John Wiley & Sons, 88. (Executive Information Decision Support n. d. EIDS)Executive Information Decision Support. (n. d. ). EIDS. Retrieved from http://www. ha. osd. mil/peo/59810_Axiom_Bro_EIDS. pdf United States Armed Forces Europe (USAFE) Decision Support System (DSS). (n. d. ). Retrieved from https://sg2. usafe. af. mil/DSS/

Standing Reserve in The Question Concerning Technology” by...

Upon reading â€Å"The Question Concerning Technology† by Martin Heidegger I was very confused to say the least. Like any other philosophical work there is many confusing analogies and examples that seem to go full circle almost nowhere. I decided to pick the concept â€Å"standing-reserve† initially because of the somewhat easy-to-follow example Heidegger used. From what I got from the essay I believe that â€Å"standing-reserve†, according to Heidegger, is grounds for concern. Standing-reserve takes the subject out of objects like humans or the plane (which will be covered later) and makes them exists only for their future potential. Something in standing-reserve is technology ready to be used in the future. I will now try to delve into the subject of†¦show more content†¦Heidegger says: â€Å"Whatever stands by in the sense of standing-reserve no longer stands over against us as object.† (pg. 105) I sat thinking about this and must have re-rea d it a few dozen times, the sentence is short yet very dense. I knew originally that it had to have a major impact on the rest of the essay and after much analysis and thought I came to the conclusion on what I thought was an accurate interpretation. From this Heidegger means that whatever is considered standing-reserve is no longer the subject of what is happening. This seems like it may mean nothing because one may state â€Å"well if something is in standing-reserve it shouldn’t be the subject† but in reality it could have repercussions. In terms of the essay as a whole this sentence seems to warn us against the potential technology has a taking control of certain situations. The example about my job earlier is perfect in this idea. I, the standing-reserve, was no longer the subject like I should have been. Heidegger, I believe, is challenging the thought that the standing-reserve, in this sense, does not exist. He uses that plane sitting on a runway waiting to be u sed in flight as a device to introduce his argument for the existence. In layman’s terms the plane can be interpreted very simply. It is common knowledge that just because a plane is sitting unused that it just ceases to exist. That would be preposterous; of course the plane still exists. This is the root for his argument for theShow MoreRelatedCritique Of The Heidegger s Hon 105 - Philosophical Inquiry1723 Words   |  7 PagesPhilosophical Inquiry Technology as Unconcealment Throughout the entirety of human existence, man has thought within the realm of the universe, and has relatively recently found the usage of technology as a means to an end. Technology as a whole is reliant upon humanity for it’s creation, and we are it’s sole provider of it’s unconcealment. These statements sum up what Martin Heidegger deplores about modern technological thought. In fact, at first it seems that Heidegger despises technology. Once one becomesRead MoreThe Value of Nothing Analysis2000 Words   |  8 Pagesof labeling can be seen in Run Wrake’s Rabbit when the young children are overtaken with greed, and only see animals as standing reserve for their profit driven activities. In The Value of Nothing, Patel explains the inability of economists to adapt their thoughts that are previously supported by quantitative research. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, admitted that his ideology regarding free markets was indeed wrong, and that the world’s economic model was not workingRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesargument in our technical sense of that word? a. I hate you. Get out of here! b. Im sure Martin Luther King Jr. didnt die during the 1960s, because it says right here in the encyclopedia that he was assassinated in Memphis in 1998. c. The Republican Party began back in the 1850s as a U.S. political party. Abraham Lincoln was their first candidate to win the presidency. d. I don’t believe you when you say Martin Luther King Jr. could have been elected president if he hadn’t been assassinated. Try